News

Vermin is something that food companies are likely to have to consider at some point, if not on an ongoing basis. This case unfortunately shows an extreme example where there were serious failures in food and hygiene standards, and where that could lead in terms of sentencing.

Ashfords' Business Regulatory Consultancy and Agriculture Sector Teams attended the Farm Business Innovation Show at The NEC, Birmingham on 8 - 9 November along with the Chartered Trading Standards Institute ("CTSI").

We are now in the second day of the four day hearing of the Supreme Court case on the Government appealing the Brexit process. It has today been announced that the UK will have to reach a Brexit deal with the EU by October 2018.

It is an unfortunate reality that many farming businesses are operating at their limits and are struggling financially. There are several aspects of the insolvency law that should be borne in mind should you run your farm through a limited company that begins to face financial difficulty.

Commercial analysis: A recent report highlighted some of the issues surrounding vulnerable consumers who are encouraged to buy online at night—a phenomenon dubbed the ‘vampire economy’. Hannah Batten, solicitor at Ashfords, and Louise Workman, partner at the firm, consider some of the legal angles of this trend.

Confidentiality agreements, also known as Non-Disclosure Agreements ("NDA"), are designed to protect crucial and commercially sensitive business information, for example, manufacturing processes, secret recipes, customer lists, know-how, ideas, business plans and technical data.

This week the Investigatory Powers Bill, also known as the "snooper's charter" due to the range of provisions linked to obtaining communications data, has become law. The Bill has provoked concerns over personal privacy, but does the law really deserve such censure.